Golf coach accused of molesting then trying to kill teens

Written By ASSOCIATED PRESS Posted: 04/30/2014, 05:44am

LIVERMORE, Calif. — A San Francisco Bay Area golf coach who was set to receive an award from the PGA before he was arrested and accused of molesting three boys tried to hire a hit man to have them killed, prosecutors said.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has charged 32-year-old Andrew Michael Nisbet with solicitation of murder. Nisbet already was facing dozens of molestation charges.

The Livermore golf coach exchanged letters with a confidential informant in which he indicated he wanted the victims killed and discussed the price, prosecutors said Tuesday. They said Nisbet later met with an undercover agent posing as a hit man, and the two discussed killing two of the victims.

The agent, while making a shooting motion with his hand, allegedly told Nisbet he was a mechanic and could fix a car. Nisbet mouthed at least one of the victims’ names to the agent and disclosed the cities the two victims could be found in, according to Jeff McCort, an inspector with the district attorney’s office. McCort said the agent told Nisbet he would make it seem like a robbery.

“It appears from Nisbet’s letters to and from the (confidential informant) as well as his conversation with (the undercover inspector), he is serious about having the victims killed in exchange for money,” McCort wrote in a document seeking a warrantless arrest.

A subsequent search of Nisbet’s jail cell turned up additional letters discussing the planned killings, according to McCort.

A call to Nisbet’s attorney, Timothy Rien, on Wednesday was not immediately returned.

Nisbet was a well-respected golf instructor. His arrest last year came a day before he was to receive the PGA’s Northern California Section 2013 Junior Golf Leader Award for his work with young golfers.

He is accused of molesting three students between the ages of 12 and 17 between 2007 and 2012, the Contra Costa Times reported. He often showed the boys pornography, including child pornography, while he performed sex acts on them, authorities say.

He faces charges including lewd acts with minors and arranging sexual meetings with minors. Nisbet was an instructor at a city-owned golf course in Livermore, a suburb about 45 miles east of San Francisco.